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Tips & Hints of the Week # 1 – Introduction & Breathing
Posted by Junior Shooters
By: Andy Fink
We are now publishing Tips & Hints of the Week each Monday. These will be provided by a variety of writers from all types of backgrounds. All of the shooting sports will be covered. The articles will be relatively short, usually emphasizing only one technique unless questions need to be answered. If you have a question on how to become a better shooter, or wish to submit a tip that will help others, please email us at articles@juniorshooters.net. We really appreciate your ideas, comments, questions, and suggestions.
Breathing:
The art of breathing properly during shooting competitions will contribute greatly to how accurate your shots are. 
Hurried breathing increases your hear rate resulting in more muscle movement. Timing the instant of the trigger pull to when your breath is held reduces the motion of the firearm. Each shooting sport has its variances whether it is action shooting or precision shooting. However, you can improve your scores in all of them by being able to control your breathing.
Next time you go to the range to practice think about your breathing. Are you breathing in between shots? Are you holding your breath just before you touch the last release of the trigger? How is your heart rate?
Anyone have any comments or suggestions on breathing? Fill out the comments below or email them in to articles@juniorshooters.net.
Editor’s Note: Frank Cornell contacted me after I posted the tips & hints above and wanted to add some things. His tips are very applicable and should be tried by any serious shooter.
Breathing Down
By: Frank Cornell, NRA Marksmanship Instructor and USA Shooting Coach
Proper breathing is an often overlooked aspect of shooting fundamentals. Proper breathing helps to reduce movement while shooting and done properly can induce a calming affect. Different types of shooting require different breathing techniques. For rapid fire competitions: breath, aim, squeeze, is about all a shooter can do. In combat, or survival shooting it’s breath if you can! I will elaborate on breathing for precision shooting.
For decades precision shooters were taught to breath in then excel about half your breath and hold before shooting. Not a bad technique and it has served shooters well for decades or even centuries. Breathing down is a somewhat contemporary technique that is currently taught to precision shooters in pistol or rifle shooting. Breathing down involves taking 3 or 4 breaths, not big gulping breaths, in incrementally smaller amounts to half-lung capacity. This technique actually helps to reduce the cardio-pulmonary rate. It’s kind of a Zen thing. Shooters who have mastered this technique can lower their cardio-pulmonary rates to a point that it is barely readable. Some shooters who have mastered this technique have had fun with medical professionals by breathing down before having blood pressure and pulses checked subsequently making the readings almost nil! Once the breath is held a shooter has about 8 seconds to accept or reject a shot before oxygen depletion starts to take affect. Oxygen depletion will cause a fatiguing sensation with muscle tremors and blurred vision.
A couple of items to keep in mind: practice your breathing technique frequently, especially before shooting; if you feel the effects of oxygen depletion, reject the shot, reset, and start the shooting process over; different types of shooting may require different breathing techniques. May all your shots be X’s!!
Copyright & Published By: Junior Shooters & Junior Sports Magazines Inc. April 2009
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